Ask the Kuro Crew
by Project Arashi
Summary: Project Arashi makes its debut in the Ask! fics. Submit your questions for any character seen in any of the eight works in production from Project Arashi! Co-hosted by the director and Chao Lingshen, with special guest appearances in every chapter.


"Alright folks, it's time to kick in the door and put the Kuro Crew on the map in the Negima section. Or at least, that's the general intent. Some of you probably only recognize us from the single (worthwhile) entry into the Negima section, _Future Perfect: Chao Lingshen's Tale_. Our main project resides over in the Love Hina section, as that's where _Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm_ was born, despite it having transformed to become an official Love Hina/Negima epic adventure, as opposed to a purely Love Hina venture that just happened to have bits of Negima in it. Oh, wait, yeah that's right. Jose did host _Flight of the Cormorant_ in the Negima section, didn't he?"

"I think you're rambling again," came the voice of Chao Lingshen. The time traveling mage, clad in her Chao Bao Zi battle-suit, was seated on one of the couches in the living room of the famed hot springs inn/all-girls dormitory Hinata-Sou. "I think I'll take over from here. You keep on talking to yourself." She cleared her throat, then gave a genial wave in the direction of the fourth wall/audience. "Hey there, folks, Chao Lingshen here. I got tapped to co-host our _Ask the Kuro Crew_ little thing. The rambling fool over there is the director of Project: Arashi and the main writer, Chris Ganale. He gave a pretty good rundown on the Kuro series, but if you want the full scoop, check it out for yourself by clicking on the author profile associated with this Ask! Fic. Before we get started with the questions we have, I'd like to say that I never expected to have this big a role in Project: Arashi."

Chris nodded and then shrugged, seated on a love seat perpendicular to Chao's couch. "Yeah, I didn't either," he admitted. "You'd get your role as the villainous boss of the Mages vs. Mars arc, yeah, and then I had other secret plans for you later down the line-"

"Plans you'll end up giving away in chapter three of _The Unsung War_," Chao interrupted.

"Yes, well, the secrecy of my plans are just going to have to take one for the team. I'm not too worried about it. Anyway, as I was saying, there was your role as the boss, then those plans, and then I got the idea to make a one-shot background story to show what tragedy occurred in your past, at least, insofar as the Kuroverse is concerned."

The Chinese genius smirked. "And of course, a one-shot became a two-shot, then a three-shot. And then you just had to go and make _The Unsung War_."

"Yeah, I did." He shrugged. "_Unsung War_ came about as a bunch of ideas and images I kept getting in my head of you going back to _Halo 3_ and kicking all forms of Covenant ass. Eventually, I just couldn't resist. And let's not forget, you're also the de facto host of Jose's _Flight of the Cormorant_."

"Ah, yes, I am, aren't I? It's been so long since I had to do any filming for that, that I'd almost forgotten."

"Well, we can't blame him. He's a busy man, after all."

"Right. So..." Chao leaned forward, scooping up a single sheet of paper that had been resting on the coffee table. "We got anything else, or shall we go straight to the questions?"

Chris went silent for a moment as he thought about it. "Well, only a couple small details that I think can wait until the end."

"Hmm, but you might forget them if you wait."

"Eh, true enough. Well, first off, a reason as to why we're putting this in the Negima section rather than the Love Hina section. Simply put, the LH section seems pretty serious, too serious, in fact, to tolerate something nonsensical like this. Besides, we'll always use the excuse of audience broadening. Second thing is that we noticed that most of the Ask! fics around here tend to have certain characters that are 'licensed' to each individual one. We here in Project: Arashi don't want to step on anyone's toes, but with the number of Negima characters that are involved with Project: Arashi, it's inevitable that some questions would come up concerning their participation in our project. So we're going to state that you can ask questions of any canon Negima character that appears in any aspect of the Kuroverse, so long as you only ask questions directly pertaining to their participation. That should limit the number of headaches and clashes between ourselves and the rest of the Negima section."

"Of course, all this depends on the generosity and good will of the established authors who's territory that we're essentially invading," Chao pointed out with a deceptively-cheerful tone. "But! All that aside, let's get to the questions. We've got four of them today, all hailing from our most recognized fan, Tikigod784. First question:

"_Besides halo and negima, just what franchises are part of the "universe" and what are simply "fiction"?"_

"Alright, this is a question I've been waiting for someone to ask for a long time, because it was sort of explained by Mutsumi way back in chapter ten of Kuro," Chris said, grinning. "Now I'll get a chance to go more in-depth on this and make sure everyone is on the same page. For starters, to directly answer the question, it's best to assume that the only things that one should consider to be true fiction within the Kuroverse are the most crazy and outlandish things, such as _Star Wars_, _Lord of the Rings_, et cetera."

"What do you mean by true fiction?" Chao asked.

"Well, as Mutsumi explained to the crew, the task of the Yochi no Kouken is to disperse the knowledge of Existence as clues for the Chosen Heroes, whom we now call the Kuro crew. Mutsumi, and her predecessor, chose to use the medium of popular culture, movies, books, and video games, as their way of hiding the knowledge. The only ones who know just how much of popular culture is reality are Mutsumi and her predecessor. Let me give an example. Chao, you recall when the Casseiopeia transported you to 1997 and you encountered Mutsumi's predecessor in the Lifestream?" As an aside, he added, "Yes, folks, that was not Mutsumi that met her in the Lifestream, as Mutsumi would have only been what? Ten or so?"

Chao nodded. "Mm, yes. She told me that there was a reason I was brought back to that time."

"Precisely. As you were told, she used the Lifestream to read your memories of the future, of the Human-Covenant War. That being a vital piece of human history, albeit future history, the Yochi no Kouken of the time decided to add that into the hidden clues of Existence. Thus, the handing over of the storyline for the _Halo_ trilogy to Bungie Studios."

A sour look appeared on Chao's face. "I always wondered why those games were so blasted accurate," she said. "But how did she manage to predict the Covenant Civil War and the Human-Sangheili Alliance? All that happened after I jumped back in time."

"The Lifestream is a powerful thing," Chris answered cryptically. "But in all seriousness, let me give a short list of what is part of 'reality' or history of the Kuroverse. As I stated, _Halo_ is factual. The _Final Fantasy_ games are exactly that, games. As previously stated, the _Star Wars_ universe is also true fiction. _Xenosaga_, _Metal Gear_... You know, now that I think about it? Very few franchises are actual parts of the reality of the Kuroverse. Most franchises have discreet references to the truth of reality in them, but nothing more than that."

"So you don't have some master list somewhere that tells what is reality and what's really fiction in Project: Arashi?" Chao asked.

"No, I kinda do most of it on the fly."

"Yeah, that sounds like you."

Chris waved it off. "Okay, next question."

Chao looked down at the sheet. "Hmm. I think we can hit all three of these at once."

"Let me see that," the writer said, leaning forward and taking the sheet. He scanned the three remaining questions, then frowned and handed it back. "Yeah, we probably can, especially the last two, but let's split 'em up anyway and try to add some filler."

"You're the boss," Chao said. "Okay, second question:

"_Also, any chance of MC appearances?"_

"Just for clarification," Chao explained, "all the questions submitted by Tikigod were submitted for _The Unsung War_, so they all follow a general Halo theme. And 'MC' means Master Chief."

"Right-o," Chris said, then nodded. "I can say with absolute certainty that Master Chief will appear in the mid- to later chapters of _The Unsung War_. After all, how can Bravo-Six participate in the Africa campaign without running into the Chief a few times? So you can definitely look forward to seeing Master Chief in the future, Tikigod, just the same way that I look forward to grenade-sticking you in the face!"

Chao stared at her co-host. "What?"

"Sorry, had an Ask a Ninja moment."

"Were you and Bell serious about modifying the Ask a Ninja theme song for us to use?"

"Only a little. Next question."

Chao looked over the paper sitting beside her on the couch. "MC meeting Ala Alba/Kuro crew?"

"If you want to count it, the Chief will meet _some_ of the descendants of Ala Alba, the ones that make up Bravo-Six, naturally. As for meeting the _original_ Ala Alba? Not happening. Chief stays in 2552. As for the Kuro crew, he won't get to meet the majority of the crew, but there are at least two, potentially up to four, members of the full, complete crew-"

"Because remember," Chao added, holding up a finger, "that as of chapter 17 of _Kuro Arashi_, five of the remaining seven members of the Kuro crew have yet to be even _named_ as members of the crew."

"Yes, indeed. Two of the remaining seven, Masaru and Nanao, have both been named as part of the crew, and will be joining the crew in the upcoming chapter which, by the way, we are really working on. Anyway, back to the question at hand, a very minimum of two members of the crew will live to see 2552 and play major roles in _The Unsung War_. Two other members probably also survive, but probably won't make appearances in _The Unsung War_."

Chao tapped her bottom lip with a gloved finger. "I don't know, don't you think that makes it too obvious?"

"Nonsense," Chris answered, waving it off. "If our readers are astute enough to figure out who these mystery two members of the crew are, then they deserve to know. As an aside to this question, while it's already stated that Master Chief will never meet most of Ala Alba or the Kuro crew, I am aware of a few avenues available to me to introduce something of the same general idea of a Spartan-II into the timeline of the main Kuro tale."

"...Yeah, there's really no way to have worded that without giving away that you're going to put a Spartan into the Unification War," Chao said.

He shrugged. "Some things can't be helped. It gives people something to anticipate."

Chao nodded. "Okay, now for the last question:

"_Ala Alba/Kuro Arashi going forward in time?"_

"Going forward in time far enough to play a part in the Human-Covenant War? Absolutely not. Forward time travel at all? Well, I'll just say that that plays a vital part in the Unification War storyline."

"That was kind of a short answer," Chao said flatly.

"Hey, look, you've read the script, Chao. You know how things go. But I like to keep my readers in suspense and not give away my plot. Trust me, folks, Kuro's plot is about to pick up and pick up hard. I'd tell you to fasten your seatbelts, but this ride don't come with any!"

Chao laughed. "Well, that's all for this installment of _Ask the Kuro Crew_, folks. Let's start sending those questions in and get you some answers. Remember, you can ask questions for any member of the crew (the characters) or the cast (the players behind the characters) for any of the eight publications found in our author page. For convenience, we'll include a list of the cast members behind our specific characters. Until next time, folks!"

Cast

Chris Ganale _...as..._ Seno Nakakami  
Jusuchin Panjirinanu _...as..._ Lorenzo Ruiz  
Dischord _...as..._ Nealla Ju, Kaolla Su, Nanao Yuzuki  
Paradox _...as..._ Sabashii Kokueii, Masaru Nanjou  
Bell _...as..._ Kazue Aoyama  
Alexander Akai _...as..._ Hiroyuki Murakami  
Leeni _...as..._ Konoka Konoe  
Set _...as..._ Setsuna Sakurazaki  
Komm Kayriel _...as..._ Haiken Enkou  
Sho _...as..._ Shiel Mazushida


End file.
